New Guy Here. Got My First Orange Amp. 35RT
Posted: Mon Jun 18, 2018 6:08 am
Hello all,
New to the forum here. I am essentially a beginner player, but have owned guitars for a long time. I started taking lessons as a teen, then learned how to do power chords and that was really it. LOL! I discovered that a lot of songs used them, so I felt I knew enough to go write my own music.
I later quit playing altogether for roughly 10 years. When asked why, I would always answer with "I don't know." After really contemplating this a lot, I dug deep and realized that I really quit playing because I wasn't any good at it. That was the truth.
A bit over a year ago now, I decided to actually learn how to play better. I started doing an online course, and learned several open chords. I recently learned my first scale, to begin playing leads. Oddly, I had never attempted doing lead guitar before, but I find myself loving it and feeling like I am actually starting to learn.
During the course of this time, my sole amp has been an old Epiphone Valve Jr amp head ran into a Vox V112TV cab that I loaded with a Celestion G12T-75. I had never put new tubes in it the entire time I've owned it, so I re-tubed it with JJs. I was hoping it would breathe new life into my Epi, but it still sounded essentially the same, and wasn't practical for my current needs. Due to this, I really just played unplugged and my Epi just sat there gathering dust. I needed an actual practice amp.
I began looking to see what was available, and got turned onto Orange Amps. I don't even remember what got me looking at them, but I knew what I needed. I wanted a low cost, smaller practice amp with built in reverb. I preferred the idea of solid state to tube (need to keep the volume down most of the time), but I am not completely sold on digital/modeling amps yet. After I learned what an effects loop is, I also had to have one of those. LOL!
All of this led me to really wanting an Orange Crush 35RT. I pined and pined for one until yesterday. As a fathers day present, my GF bought me a 35RT amp, as well as an On Stage amp stand to go with it. Woot!!!
I played with it all night and today as well. As much as I have wanted one of these, I was extremely pleased when it exceeded all of my expectations for it. The biggest (and best) surprise to me was how loud it can get and still stay clean. I am not in a band these days, nor do I regularly jam with others, but I have no doubt that the 35RT could keep up with no troubles. Orange should have thrown a speaker output jack on here. Hook a cab up to it, and you'd be gig ready!
I like to record myself a lot and was curious about the emulated line out for that purpose. Admittedly, I am not a fan of amp sims on the PC as I always feel they just sound too artificial, and sound more like a DI signal than an amp being mic'd. The Orange 35RT "crushed" it when I ran into my interface. I expected it to be "ok" sounding, but it really delivered real recordable tones IMO. Not bad at all.
My only quibble with the amp is that it is a bit noisy. If the amp is on and no signal is being played, there is audible hiss coming from the speaker. It's only noticeable when up close, but I like to mic guitar cabs right off the grill, so this may be a bit troublesome for me. I haven't mic'd it up yet, so it may not be a real factor though. I will be testing that tomorrow.
Anyway, I have written a novel here, but wanted to do a proper introduction, as well a bit of a review of the Orange Crush 35RT. I absolutely LOVE it, and decided to join this forum to celebrate!
Thanks for reading,
-Dave
New to the forum here. I am essentially a beginner player, but have owned guitars for a long time. I started taking lessons as a teen, then learned how to do power chords and that was really it. LOL! I discovered that a lot of songs used them, so I felt I knew enough to go write my own music.
I later quit playing altogether for roughly 10 years. When asked why, I would always answer with "I don't know." After really contemplating this a lot, I dug deep and realized that I really quit playing because I wasn't any good at it. That was the truth.
A bit over a year ago now, I decided to actually learn how to play better. I started doing an online course, and learned several open chords. I recently learned my first scale, to begin playing leads. Oddly, I had never attempted doing lead guitar before, but I find myself loving it and feeling like I am actually starting to learn.
During the course of this time, my sole amp has been an old Epiphone Valve Jr amp head ran into a Vox V112TV cab that I loaded with a Celestion G12T-75. I had never put new tubes in it the entire time I've owned it, so I re-tubed it with JJs. I was hoping it would breathe new life into my Epi, but it still sounded essentially the same, and wasn't practical for my current needs. Due to this, I really just played unplugged and my Epi just sat there gathering dust. I needed an actual practice amp.
I began looking to see what was available, and got turned onto Orange Amps. I don't even remember what got me looking at them, but I knew what I needed. I wanted a low cost, smaller practice amp with built in reverb. I preferred the idea of solid state to tube (need to keep the volume down most of the time), but I am not completely sold on digital/modeling amps yet. After I learned what an effects loop is, I also had to have one of those. LOL!
All of this led me to really wanting an Orange Crush 35RT. I pined and pined for one until yesterday. As a fathers day present, my GF bought me a 35RT amp, as well as an On Stage amp stand to go with it. Woot!!!
I played with it all night and today as well. As much as I have wanted one of these, I was extremely pleased when it exceeded all of my expectations for it. The biggest (and best) surprise to me was how loud it can get and still stay clean. I am not in a band these days, nor do I regularly jam with others, but I have no doubt that the 35RT could keep up with no troubles. Orange should have thrown a speaker output jack on here. Hook a cab up to it, and you'd be gig ready!
I like to record myself a lot and was curious about the emulated line out for that purpose. Admittedly, I am not a fan of amp sims on the PC as I always feel they just sound too artificial, and sound more like a DI signal than an amp being mic'd. The Orange 35RT "crushed" it when I ran into my interface. I expected it to be "ok" sounding, but it really delivered real recordable tones IMO. Not bad at all.
My only quibble with the amp is that it is a bit noisy. If the amp is on and no signal is being played, there is audible hiss coming from the speaker. It's only noticeable when up close, but I like to mic guitar cabs right off the grill, so this may be a bit troublesome for me. I haven't mic'd it up yet, so it may not be a real factor though. I will be testing that tomorrow.
Anyway, I have written a novel here, but wanted to do a proper introduction, as well a bit of a review of the Orange Crush 35RT. I absolutely LOVE it, and decided to join this forum to celebrate!
Thanks for reading,
-Dave